Silly Old Rain

Oh, yes, Gentle Reader, I know how much we love to hate this inescapable fact of November on the West Coast.  Rain.  Cold rain.  Cold rain that never stops.  Cold rain that never stops soaking us in its cold wet embrace.  Miserable.  Gross.  Nah, it's just rain.  Part of life, part of nature, just like the trees, the birds, the flowers.  Just like us.

We are part of nature.  And the rain is a gift.  Have you ever endured a drought?  We had quite a nasty one last year.  Five months of almost no precipitation.  Already in June the lawns were brown and water rationing was being enforced.  It felt like the end of the world.  They would have been considered normal conditions in California and in parts of the Mediterranean.  Here it was an anomaly.  And we all began to do the unlikely: begging and praying for rain.

Rain is a gift.  It waters the earth, fills the reservoirs and makes things grow.  Water is a gift and it is seventy percent of our bodily substance.  Yes, we miss the sunshine and battling through the rain and wind can be nasty at times, but what about embracing it?  Water is holy.  Water is sacred.  They have also found that water has a consciousness.  I think of it as a visible sign of the Holy Spirit.  Holy water.  Water of baptism.  The living water that quenches the most burning of thirsts.

Of course, I don't expect that all of you, Gentle Reader, are going to see it this way.  Some of you are atheists.  Remember my advice in yesterday's post.  Even if you can't believe in a personal God, or in God at all, try to envision the Highest Good and make that your focus.  For those of you who occupy the "spiritual but not religious" camp, for those who are prone to depression, for those who simply cannot cope without sunshine, may I offer a suggestion or two?  Look within.  Try to think of or visualize one lovely thought that you carry inside.  Focus on that thought.  Visualize it.  Let it grow a smile on your face.  Look at the person next to you.  Think of them as a child of four, running and jumping in rain puddles, laughing and shrieking with a young child's joy.  Imagine yourself as that child.  Think of playing and splashing in puddles.  Think of ducks.  I cannot look at ducks and not smile.  Try singing in the rain.  Literally.  Never mind who hears you.  Think of the lush natural beauty that surrounds us.  Where does that come from?  What sustains it?  Colour or paint when you can.  Create bright colour.  Surround yourself with bright sunny colour.  Think of Mexico.  Let it form a new smile on your face, then go outside with a good umbrella and footwear, embrace it.  Breathe in the fresh, pure, sweet cool air.  Stay out for at least half an hour.  Go home and make something nice and hot to drink, then phone or send an email to someone to remind them that you care.